Massachusetts Legislative Update

Wednesday April 10, 2013, the Massachusetts House of Representatives released its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2014. We are happy to report that the House budget continues full funding for the Film and Television Production Incentive – it does not adopt the cap proposed by the Governor.

Representatives in the House have until this Friday at 5 p.m. to file amendments to the proposed House budget. Once all those amendments have been reviewed, we will know if any amendments have been filed that would propose a cap or any other roll-back to the incentive. We will update our members on the status of amendments early next week.

We would like to correct some misinformation that has been circulating that indicates that this week the State House will consider a budget which currently includes a cap at $40 million. The Governor’s budget contains a proposed cap but that budget is not being considered (voted on) by the House. The House creates its own budget (released today) and will consider, debate and vote on that budget as well as any amendments starting the week of April 22.

Thank you to all the members who contacted your Representative to express your personal support for the Film and Television Incentive, and to our phone bank volunteers for their work reaching out to their fellow members to encourage action at this critical time. With the strong efforts of our members, along with the work of our industry friends and fellow stakeholders we are making excellent progress in our campaign to maintain the incentive program. Our thanks as well to our many friends in the House of Representatives for their continued support of the production incentive.

In unity,

Dona Sommers
SAG-AFTRA Boston
20 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116
617 262-8001
dona.sommers@sagaftra.org